Note the use of my (wonderful) Grizzly band saw, in making the arc for the front panel skirt!

One of the stars of today’s show:

Honorable mention goes to….

Tomorrow should bring this beast into the lineup!

Twas a very fun day in the woodshop. I loved having the remote for my DC. I also see why things like chop saws, drill presses, mortisers, and table saws that use ZCIs often get additional dust collection via top/side mounted thingamajigs. Nothing bad, but … I could do better.

Since my router cabinet isn’t enclosed yet, I used my ShopVac, fitted with a big doorway-shaped attachment, and wedged it underneath while the DC tackled the top port. Worked beautifully!

Milling that 3” x 11” x 72” piece of solid mahogany was a cross between a mighty big challenge and a ton of fun. So far, I’m winning, but … tomorrow’s another day.

The pics make it obvious that my camera—in macro mode—has some “barrel distortion,” or something like that. All the boards are S4S and pretty darned straight.

Way to go Neil. Looks like you are making great progress. Congrats, you have now passed me…I haven’t even planed the wood for the sides or top yet. I can’t wait until next two weekends when I get some SERIOUS time in the shop. Again, looks great. Also, I can’t tell if the legs aren’t straight or just that the picture is playing tricks on me.

Neil, this is looking pretty good and the new tools are nice to see as well. No wonder you are having fun. New tools, a nice project to work on and all the shop time you want without any “daily interruptions” to intefere with your progress. :)

It does look like you are having fun.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Eric: It’s the camera. Even my lousy eyes picked up on it. I literally went back downstairs to look ;-) Passing you isn’t exactly fair. You’re using some hand tools. I’m using none. Besides, don’t take one productive day, and read any kind of trend into it. This IS me we’re talking about :-)

Scott: exactly right. Though I always miss my wife when we’re apart (she’s on vacation with my mother!), I am enjoying the shop time. I never knew a planer could be so much fun! The even better news? I still have a Ridgid belt sander and a Grizzly mortiser … sitting in boxes … waiting for me to set them up!

This eve, I picked up two 2-tube, 4-foot fluorescent fixtures, from the Depot, for about nine bucks each. I spent the money to buy four of the C50 bulbs. I now have five 2-tube, 4-foot fixtures in the shop. I need one or two more (mainly where the planer is and the mortiser will be), and then I’ll be all set … for a bit ;-)

The C50’s don’t look that much better, to me, than the …. whichever ones I bought before. Suffice to say, the additional light, though, makes a world of difference.

Tomorrow may be much harder than today. I’ve got lots of tenons to cut. I’m not going to mortise on the mahogany until I’ve set up the mortiser and done a LOT of practice on cut-offs and scrap. May make one more trip to the Depot to see what’s in their cull bin.